Rapid manufacturing techniques are becoming more widely used to produce a wide variety of parts. In particular, techniques which build parts layer-by-layer are becoming more well known and used in industry to manufacture custom parts. Selective laser sintering is one such rapid manufacturing technique whereby products can be built up from powdered material, such as powdered metal, layer-by-layer. For example, a layer of powdered material can be applied to a bed of the laser sintering machine and a laser is then controlled so as to sinter or melt select parts of the powdered material so as to form a first layer of the part. Another layer of powder is then applied on top and the laser is again controlled to sinter or melt another layer of the part. This process is repeated until the whole part is formed. The formed part is then removed from the bed of powder. Such techniques are well known and for instance described in EP1021997 and EP1464298.
Compared to more traditional techniques such as milling parts from billets or blanks, such techniques offer rapid manufacturing, as well as facilitate manufacturing of complex parts and can help to minimise material wastage. As a result it is becoming more desirable to manufacture parts using such techniques. Indeed, it is known to use such a technique for forming dental restorations, and in particular dental frameworks, which are typically complex bespoke parts.
However, products made by such a technique sometimes need a further operation in order to alter the surface finish, and/or the precision of certain features on the part, which cannot be achieved via the rapid manufacturing technique alone.
According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a method of manufacturing an article, comprising: taking an article formed in an initial state via an additive manufacturing process; performing a second manufacturing process to transform the article into a second state, which comprises mounting the article in a holding device, processing at least one first feature on the article, and processing at least one mounting feature on the article (for example processing at least one set of mounting features on the article), re-mounting the article via the at least one mounting feature (e.g. via the at least one set of mounting features), and then processing at least one second feature on the article.